Apologies in advance for a long story.
I've created a macro that I want to assign to a particular key combination. I've done this literally thousands of times over the last 15 years, but i've never come across anything like the problem I've having here.
I have assigned the macro to a key combination: Ctrl+Alt+M.
As expected I am able to use that key combination to run the macro -- and then for no apparent reason it suddenly stops working.
The macro is still there, and can be run directly. And when I go into the Customize Keyboard dialog, I can see that Ctrl+Alt+M it is still assigned to the macro. But it doesn't run.
The first few times this has happened, I've Removed the assignment, then reassigned it. And I have somehow been able to get it to work for a time -- until it mysteriously stops again. Within the same Word session, it will work, and then stop.
This last time, as has happened before, when I went to do the usual Remove and re-Assign, I found that the box where I enter the key combo, is rejecting Ctrl+Alt+M. I type it, but it doesn't appear in the box. Nothing at all happens, it's as though I am not pressing any keys at all. I do not get an indication that it is already assigned -- but I can see that it IS already assigned. If I remove the assignment, then (as in the past) I may get lucky and find myself able to reassign it after opening and closing Word a few times, but it's very inconsistent.
On a hunch, I went to the desktop and tried to assign Ctrl+Alt+M to an application shortcut, through the shortcut's Properties dialog. When I type that key combo, the box automatically clears, indicating that it is already assigned. Yet I haven't assigned it to anything -- certainly not since I started being intermittently able to assign it to a Word macro. (I am aware that desktop Shortcut shortcut keys take precedence over Word key combo assignments.) Yet when I type Ctrl+Alt+M outside of Word, even when directly on the desktop, nothing at all happens, i.e., it really doesn’t seem to be assigned to anything.
Thinking it might be something wrong with my Normal.dotm template, I renamed and hid it form Word, forcing the creation of a new one. I then recorded a macro, but when I tried to assign it to Ctrl+Alt+M, the same thing happened.
I found a utility that will display all shortcut keys that are currently assigned to desktop shortcuts. When I run this, it correctly shows all of my shortcuts, and as expected, Ctrl+Alt+M is not one of them.
SOMETHING is intermittently inhibiting this one particular key combo from being assigned to either a Word command/macro or to desktop shortcuts, and when I am able to make an assignment, it eventually stops working.
I'm hoping that someone might detect a clue in this tale of woe as to what it might be.
Thank you.
